The Castle Quotes

“The hardest part isn’t dying; it’s surviving.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“Dreams don’t need to have a purpose. They’re part of living.” “If they’re part of living, then they’re part of dying.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“Tell me what you need,” he says, grave and sure. There’s only one answer I can give, only one thing a pawn truly wants. And that’s all I’ve ever been. To my father. To Gabriel. The whole world sees me as a piece to be played. And I can never really be safe as long as I’m being moved around the board against my will. “Set me free,” I whisper. His”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“The queen has freedom the king does not. She decides her own fate.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I’m not trying to get out. I’m trying to stay in.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“Oh, little virgin. I love you with every cold bone in my body. I love you with every dark thought, every violent impulse. I love you enough to leave the walls I’ve carefully built, the iron bars I refined, the castle I made.” “I”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I came to him as a virgin in every sense of the word, my body untried, my mind untested. My heart unbroken. He changed me, formed me, made me into a woman. And in the same way I made him into a man—a man who can love without reservation, a man who can submit. A king who can give himself over to his queen.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“Oh, little virgin. I love you with every cold bone in my body. I love you with every dark thought, every violent impulse. I love you enough to leave the walls I’ve carefully built, the iron bars I refined, the castle I made.” “I don’t want you to leave,” I whisper. “This castle is for you. I’m talking about the one inside me, the one locking up everything gentle and kind I ever might have been. And now I stand in front of you, completely defenseless.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“A smart man enjoys the challenge of a smart woman.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“For all that we consider modern society to be enlightened and even highly sexualized, our views on innocence and sin are remarkably puritan. For the Greeks, virginity was not about a small strip of skin. It wasn’t irrevocably missing after having sex. Virginity was closer to abstinence, to modesty. A purity of body and thought. A sacred duty.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I pored over every text I could find that explored the classical views on sexual purity. Was a woman ruined once her hymen disappeared? Why was virginity something for a man to take, as if it was a possession?”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“There’s something else I need to examine, a subject I know intimately but that remains a mystery—virginity. The auction changed the course of my life. It ruined me. It saved me. How could such a small strip of skin so greatly affect me? Why does the lack of experience mark me as somehow more valuable?”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“It’s suicide. To love a man like me.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“You’re mine to protect. Whole. Strong. Beautiful, inside and out.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I shake my head, thinking about that castle again. About how you have to break it apart just to see inside. About the fact that we’re all castles—hard, packed pieces of stone. Perfectly composed by eons of earth shifting and forming, carved into our individual builds. And when we shatter, there’s no going back to what we were before.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I want you, Gabriel Miller. And maybe you’re the one who should be afraid of that.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I turn my face up to his, knowing that he’ll see my eyes red and puffy, that he’ll see the worst of me. His expression reveals a deep-seated pleasure, the kind that comes from physical sensation. God, he likes it. He loves me torn up and angry. He loves the real me, stripped down. Not like I was at the auction, naked and humiliated, freshly made-up and for sale. No, this is the real Avery James.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“It isn’t a good thing that I want you. Nothing good comes from a man like me.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I can’t even laugh, too broken by what I just did. Broken long before this. There are hidden wounds on me, inside me, like the one on my lip. Gabriel can see it, but I can’t.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“You’re mine, and I damn well keep what’s mine.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“He told me I should run away from you.” Sex for money. I guess it’s more honest work than your daddy did, but just as dirty. “You didn’t listen.” “No. I spent the first eighteen years of my life listening to men tell me what to do. And then I realized that they were going to judge me no matter what I did. They were going to sell me and buy me and do whatever they wanted, so I may as well get a cut.” Gabriel’s golden eyes glint with pride. “That’s right.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I feel like he’s worshipping me. I always thought of the men as gods—powerful, angry. He makes me feel like a goddess, beautiful and divine.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“Your kitten has claws, Gabriel.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I don’t need the strength that comes from muscle, from steel. I have other weapons.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“You could have had anyone.” “Not someone I would die for.” “I don’t want you to die for me,”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I built that house like a fortress, a goddamn castle. All that’s missing is a drawbridge. But I had nothing to protect. No one.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“Do you have any idea how much you’re worth?” “One million dollars,” I whisper because the amount is imprinted on my soul. Written on my body.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“I’m crazy,” I gasp instead, because I trust him. Against reason. Against instinct.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“What do you require in payment?” “Everything.” His body. His soul. Most of all, his heart. If I spelled it out he would claim he didn’t have one. He sucks in a breath. “You’re asking me to break into pieces. What do you think shards of glass will do to you? You’ll be cut, little virgin. You’ll bleed.” “Then I want to bleed. That’s the payment I require.” He stands abruptly, walking toward the edge of the balcony. He rests his hands on the balustrade. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle

“My eyes narrow. “I could be a queen, then.” “Without me?” “I could be.” “I don’t doubt that, little virgin. I don’t doubt that you could captivate any man you set your mind to. You captivated me before you even knew I existed. You’re my queen.”
― Skye Warren, The Castle